MY WIFE HAS a favorite Gospel
story. It’s the one about the woman who, in Matthew and Mark, throws herself
down on the ground in front of Jesus and pleads for help, crying out, “My
daughter is cruelly tormented by the devil!”

My wife and I have teenaged
daughters. We can relate.

All of us can relate to Gospel characters. Their
stories could be our own. One story in Luke strikes a chord in me. It’s the one
in which a man goes out on a limb to help another man in trouble. The man helps
without thought of receiving any thanks, but we’ve been thanking him ever since
for his example of love. We know him as the Good Samaritan.

I think of the Good
Samaritan often. I imagine his courage each time I cross paths with a man who,
despite being the least likely person I’d have thought to have done so, came
running one night out of the blue to help me. His appearance at my door gave me
immeasurable comfort. It also answered the question posed in Luke 10:29 where a
lawyer tries publicly to trip up the Lord. “And who is my neighbor?” the lawyer
asks.

This question is as relevant today as it was two millennia ago when asked
originally. Yes, our neighbor is on the side of the road, bleeding, as Jesus
goes on to describe the victim in his parable. But in our case today, in the
current millennium, he’s also the guy right next door.